Wagga students receive ticket to ride in the rail industry

Eighteen workers from Wagga and the surrounding region graduated from a free five-week Certificate II in Rail Infrastructure course on Tuesday.

The qualification aims to train up workers to build the Inland Rail project and is funded by them.

The course, run by Yakka Training, involved a mixture of both theoretical and practical training, and the qualifications open up future career opportunities for work in the rail industry.

For some participants like Wagga's Lawrence Button, 28, it was the first qualification they have ever received.

Mr Button comes to the industry after working for GrainCorp and said he spotted the course on Facebook and was attracted by its short length.

"I wanted to try something different and decided to give the rail a go," he said.

Mr Button said he enjoyed the course and has "never done anything like it before" in his life.

"It feels good. I've never done a [tertiary] course before, so it's the first certificate I've ever had," he said.

Wagga mother-of-three Tymeka Simpson, 29, was also excited to graduate.

For Ms Simpson, it was quite a big career change switching from childcare to the rail industry.

"It's an opportunity that came up and I thought I'd give it a go," she said.

Ms Simpson said the shortness of the course made it "pretty easy" to juggle with looking after her children.

Inland Rail Skills Academy senior skills and training advisor Cathy Duncan said the course provides a great way into the rail industry.

"You don't need any background in the rail industry to do this course," Ms Duncan said.

She said 16 of the 18 graduates in this cohort came from a First Nations background - something which is part of organisers "social performance targets".

These targets also focus on local community members, women and those under 25 years of age.

Ms Duncan said the free course will continue to run and that there are also other training opportunities available through Inland Rail.

For more information, go to the Inland Rail website.

While it's understood approval for the Albury to Illabo section of the Inland Rail project is yet to be signed off by the state government, an Inland Rail spokesperson has previously said major construction works are expected to commence in March 2025.